Ski Niigata Prefecture
Skiing in Japan started in the Niigata Prefecture back in the early 1910s. Niigata skiing is still a mainstay of the region, with about 55 Niigata ski resorts still operating.
The Niigata Prefecture is located northwest of
Tokyo on
Honshu, the main island of Japan. Niigata stretches for about 240km along the coast of the Sea of Japan and features many big mountains. Close to the coast in the southern part of the prefecture there are many high profile Niigata ski resorts (e.g. the
Myoko ski areas), with another concentration of ski areas further inland in the Chūetsu/centre (but still southern) part of the prefecture (e.g.
Yuzawa ski areas).
Between the two zones, the prefecture border semi-encircles the northern tip of the Nagano Prefecture and there are various Nagano ski resorts very close to the border such as
Madarao Kogen,
Tangram, and
Togari Onsen, and
Nozawa Onsen is not far away. This whole region is a power house of ski resorts.
And just to the south of Yuzawa in Niigata, over the border in the Gunma Prefecture is
Tenjindaira and other Minakami ski resorts. Sounds like a road trip (or a train trip) is in order!
Best Known Niigata Ski Resorts
Myoko Kogen is a group of ski resorts located only 34km north of the city of Nagano. Some of the Myoko ski areas include
Myoko Akakura (Onsen and Kanko),
Seki Onsen,
Ikenotaira and
Suginohara and the zone is well known for very abundant snowfalls. Myoko makes a good base for powder hounds wanting to explore multiple ski areas considering its proximity to many Niigata ski areas and Nagano ski resorts.
Yuzawa is also home to some of the best known Niigata ski areas. The town of Yuzawa is only 70-90 minutes from Tokyo via bullet train. Nicknamed “snow country”, Yuzawa has about a dozen resorts including big names such as
Naeba,
Kagura, and
Gala Yuzawa, which has its own shinkansen (bullet train) station so it’s really quick to get there from Tokyo (as little as 75 minutes).
Just a few kilometres to the north of Yuzawa is Minamiuonuma where there’s another half a dozen resorts including
Joetsu Kokusai and the famed
Hakkaisan. Further north again is
Okutadami Maruyama, which closes mid-winter due to excessive snow on the access road.
Other Niigata Skiing
Lesser known Niigata skiing spots that are well worth heading to include
Charmant Hiuchi and
Lotte Arai Resort; both resorts are in the vicinity between Myoko Kogen and the coast. Or just near the northern tip of the Nagano Prefecture is
Cupid Valley (Yukidaruma).
Niigata Snow
Niigata isn’t just well known for its sake! The Niigata snow is also highly renowned and resorts near the coast are celebrated for very large volumes of snow. The Charmant Hiuchi ski area generally gets huge snowfalls and snow bases in excess of 5 metres! Arai scores 15 plus metres of snow on average per season, whilst Seki Onsen scores somewhere in the realm of 14.5 to 16 metres on average per season!
Further inland, the Yuzawa area is known as “snow country” for good reason because it’s said to snow about 11.8 metres on average per year, and the quality of the snow is drier than that found near the sea.
You can check out the
Niigata snow statistics for ski resort snow volumes, latitude, elevation and slope aspect.